I've been asked on multiple occasions how I feel about the new coaching staff at Nebraska. I used to think long and hard about my response in case people were to get offended, but I really don't care anymore. They do not posses qualities that stand for everything Nebraska football is. They don't understand what Husker football is really about nor do they understand the tradition.

This is the story of a Husker football player, many of you won't even recognize his name, but for his position that's a great thing. I will warn you, I am extremely biased due to the fact that my dad is the former punter and kicker and because my boyfriend is the starting long snapper, or was. Nebraska has ALWAYS prided itself on their walk-on program. It is every Nebraska native's dream to play at Memorial Stadium with 92,000 eyes on them. Josh Faulkenberry went to the open tryouts in December 2013. He was one of forty asked back and offered a spot on the football team. This rarely ever happens, so that alone is an enormous accomplishment. Better yet, when fall camp rolls around, the coaches call him up and tell him that he will be the starting long snapper for the 2014 season. Un freaking believable right? He starts thirteen games and has minimal errors the entire season. Unlucky for Josh, Bo Pelini and staff are soon fired after the season ends. What is he supposed to do now? I'll tell you what he did. He introduced himself to the new special teams coach, Bruce Read. Long story short, Bruce informs Josh that he will be putting a snapper on scholarship as well as bringing in another preferred walk-on snapper. So the only thing going through Josh's mind is that he's going to have to prove himself once again.

The 2015 Spring Game rolls around and Josh is snapping for the Red team as well as the White team. He snaps a total of around 100 plus times, again with little to no errors.

Not even two days after the Spring Game, Josh gets a text from Bruce Read telling him to come in and see him. To quote Bruce, “You're essentially not what we're looking for. I want to clean house. I have three options for you; you can transfer schools and play somewhere else, you can stay at Nebraska and just be a student, OR, since you worked so hard during and up to the Spring Game, I will allow you to stay on the team to only have the title of being a Husker football player. But you won't see the field." I think anybody reading this can agree that that's a load of crap. This didn't just happen to Josh Faulkenberry, the rest of the special teams players were also let go, besides Sam Foltz and Drew Brown. When my dad told this story to his friend, his response right away was, “Wow, that doesn't sound like Nebraska."

Here is Mike Riley's response to signing a long snapper, “We signed a long snapper. I won't say this is always the case, but we set aside three scholarships for the specialist positions: the kicker, the punter and the long snapper. Have we always done that? No. But we certainly understand the need and the importance of that position. There's a guy here that's been doing it. There's going to be competition, and that's good. Just two years ago we had a walk-on punter beat out our scholarship punter. As soon as we start practicing it's a land of opportunity. You've got to win your job. But I think those positions are so important to you. And I've got the best evaluator of specialists out of anybody. His track record on doing this is outstanding. We just want to make sure we're really good there. That's why we scholarship them. And certainly you've got to be right because you're not going to go find another one next year."

Josh was never given the opportunity to “win his job." Why not put the veteran snapper on that scholarship instead of bringing in somebody new? He's never played in front of 92,000 people before, how do you know he won't completely flail and be a mental head case? The coaching staff got rid of a kid who played thirteen straight games with no errors…somebody please make sense of that.

This is not what Nebraska stands for. This is not Nebraska. I was born and raised a Husker football die-hard fan and now I don't want to even be near Memorial Stadium on game day. Game day used to be better than Christmas to me. The tradition and history of Husker football is what drives the entire program. Actually, it's what drives the entire state. and to be perfectly honest, in my eyes, that tradition has gone down the toilet. Mike Riley and his staff don't know the first thing about Husker football and the season hasn't even started yet. If you haven't noticed, I have zero faith.

A lot of you are going to disagree with me, but there are also a lot of you that will take this story personally, but that's just how Husker fans are. Bad things don't just happen to the Husker football team, bad things happen to every single person that live and breathe Husker football. Some of you might post a negative comment saying how awful Bo Pelini was for the program and how much better Mike Riley is. Well, that's your opinion and I'm glad that you have one.

But at least Bo and every other former Husker coach gave walk-on's a shot at their dreams.